


"You're Still You"

by AfflictedwithAlliteration



Series: The Papyrus Files [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Attempted Character Study(ies), Drabbles, Gen, One-Shots, Papyrus Bingo, Specific Tags are in Works, Undertale aus, vignette style
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23404921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AfflictedwithAlliteration/pseuds/AfflictedwithAlliteration
Summary: No matter the circumstances, Papyrus would always be himself.
Series: The Papyrus Files [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683640
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	"You're Still You"

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS: Genocide Run, Language, Insinuations of Death, Violence, Angst Undertones  
> AU: Underfell  
> Bingo Prompt: "You Surely Would Have Been Blasted"

When his world went to shit in a handbag, Papyrus did not panic. 

He adjusted his world view. ~~He tried to stay exactly the same.~~

When the monsters stopped trying to dust the humans and dusted each other, he didn't participate. 

He came close, he wasn't a saint, and he made sure they'd think twice because he had _people to protect_. It was something that hadn't changed, his people that is. And his people, except for maybe Undyne, were so weak. 

So soft.

So easily broken.

~~So depressed. Was he depressed too?~~

It left him with little option but to step up. To toughen them up, to protect them at all costs, and if it meant showing them how cruel the world was, well, wasn't that like showing them how great it had been? It was the same thing. 

He was still himself.

Until the dust coated his bones.

Through no fault of his own. 

He hadn't even done it. 

Sans had.

~~He'd almost let his brother die.~~

And that's when he realized he'd fucked up. Papyrus had waited too long. Been stagnant. He'd been so focused strengthening them, he'd let himself grow weak, turned himself in a target. 

But still he didn't panic. 

He trained.

Worked until he trained all the weakness out of him. ~~If he could take any hit he still didn't have to kill them.~~ Until he was strong enough to take down anyone, to protect anyone but that was only from monsters.

He hadn't been ready for the human. 

A child.

For all the feelings he thought he'd steeled, all he could see was better times. ~~Sans as a child, himself, MK, all of them.~~

So, he let them. 

Even if it hurt Sans, even if meant he couldn't protect Undyne right away, he let them. He them them beat him over and over, let them "win", and watched them walk away even when it was only his head on the ground in clouds of dust. Because he's Papyrus. Because he was still him. Because if he had never let a monsters dust coat his bones, he couldn't let a child be the first. 

He would show them. 

Show them as he'd shown the other monsters.

After all, he could take it.

It's what he had to tell himself as he watched the carnage they wrought on everything he held so dearly because if not...he would surely have blasted them where they stood.

~~And if he did that he wouldn't be himself.~~

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my [bingo run](https://www.tumblr.com/following/25)! Been a loooong minute since I've done anything but reader-inserts, so lemme know what you think :D


End file.
